Training Log Archive: Kseniya

Red Ultra-Long, Rattlesnake Wildlife Park,

So I really wasn't prepared to spend almost 3 hrs on the course, expected it to be long but not this long... Of course, stupid of me to even attempt to do this w/o much long training. The woods were slow, green with lots of stuff to jump over. The map was so-so, really missing a lot of important details.
So I might have started a bit too fast, hesitated on 1 trying to decipher all the open / green / wood boundaries w/o much success. Was aware of the scale so just trusted my sense to go further and so hit it eventually. #2 was an interesting leg, no real good route choice, just had to fight my way through the green stuff, then through the marshy lowlands, in which I got confused trying to count the damn streams.. Went up on the wrong spur, one before the one I was supposed to climb. Figured it out, went over to the other side and hit the control fine after fighting through "white" woods. 3 and 4 were Ok. 5 messed me up a bit as the contour lines did not match what I was seeing in the vicinity of the control. There was def. some small reentrant unmapped, which led me to believe I was more right than I was, hence going left to the big reentrant and turning right back. Would have hit it dead on if I were just following my compass straight and not worrying about small contour details (I know I do this all the time). Then came #6, which I screwed up royally, lost 10 minutes! Rrr.. I was contouring perfectly fine, checking off reentrants, got to the needed spur, went up and further to the left, missed the control somehow, went down, up again, hit a marshy patch, went back slightly, no control.. no real good relocation options either.. headed back to the spur i went up on, attacked the control again, so confused in that area, nothing made sense, missed it again but hit a rootstock that was maybe mapped just not mine, turned back slightly and there was the other rootstock with my hill behind it. So relieved after finding it but so pissed off at the map and at myself for screwing it up. 7 was easy, 8 was supposed to be easy but I got majorly distracted by a damn puppy, not on a leash, who "attacked" me as I was crossing the open area + trail. The owner of course, didn't do anything to stop the evil thing from chasing me into the woods. I yelled at it and tried hard to restrain myself from kicking it's cute little face. Then I tried even harder to focus on orienteering and forget the distraction. The plan was to stay right next to the marsh and then follow a bearing to the reentrant. Well, didn't go so well, the stream coming from the marsh, not sure if that was indeed the one coming from the marsh, confused me, rootstocks confused me, and so I ended up on the indistinct trail a bit right and lower than I wanted to. Hit it fine after that, 9 was even worse, so silly of me.. decided to not keep going around the rootstocks on the trail and follow my compass straight to the control. Well, I ended up way way low in the reentrant and had to climb back up cursing. 10 was Ok, following the big reentrant, staying on the right, crossed the stream exactly where I needed and hit it dead on. After that I was done, no energy or enthusiasm to keep going. Should have taken the trail to the finish but no, I've never DNF"d just like that so I had to keep going, slowly and with lots of pain. No problems with the rest of the controls, just hobbling along, not picking the best or the fastest route choices but not caring much either. Finished and collapsed on the ground.

Surprisingly, there were some positive things in this course: I planned ahead on some of the legs! and I didn't injure myself. some minor ankle strains but nothing more..

Long course deserves a long analysis description.

UltraLong: Red Y - Splits

Event: US Sprint & UltraLong champs
 

Middle Red at Mendon Ponds, not too clean but not too bad either. Felt nice to run fast, too fast even for a middle. Had no major mistakes except for #4, which was an easy control but I got so confused in the vicinity, don't really know why, overran it to some other control on a spur, then realized that I'm being stupid and went up on to find it just fine on top of the rootstock. Some hesitations on other controls w/ no real reasons, prob just getting used to "racing" again..

Middle: Red Y - Splits

unusually nagging knee pain, all day.

elliptical warm-up @ school gym

short swim before thermo class at night

around block

core

Eagle Rock on a beautiful sunny day, saying Gbye to summer.. Did an almost complete perimeter loop with 2 minutes of light jumps on the top of the hill.. Tried out knew trail sneakers, super light and flexible, not much cushioning or support but good grip and feel, will convert them to Oing after my Pumas die.